


open the door and the light falls in

by orphan_account



Category: Ocean's 8 (2018), Ocean's Eleven Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Big Damn Heroes, Canonical Character Death, Drift Compatibility, F/F, M/M, implied suicidal ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 06:30:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15382731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Danny enlists on his eighteenth birthday.





	open the door and the light falls in

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kaydeefalls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaydeefalls/gifts).



> Title from Richard Siken's [The Dislocated Room](https://voca.arizona.edu/content/richard-siken).

Danny is sweet talking his baby sister out of a misdemeanor shoplifting charge when the beat up radio behind the convenience store counter cuts from the sweet sounds of Springsteen on KFOX to the wail of an emergency alert. They’re Californians, born and bred, but when the noise stops and it's not an earthquake update everyone in the store stills.

August 10, 2013. The world will never be the same.

 

\--

 

Danny enlists on his eighteenth birthday. It's three years after K-Day, when the first of the Jaegers go head to head with Kaiju.

He's got a not-entirely-sealed juvie record a mile long and a little sister to feed. Legit jobs were scarce enough before their hometown turned into a literal warzone. It's hard to follow his three rules when the only people around to steal from are folks in as dire straits as he is. The Bay is a poisoned, unlivable wasteland and the refugee housing the government set up outside the Exclusion Zone is barely better. There's an aunt in Ohio who offers to take in Debbie so she can at least finish high school, but Debbie pitches a fit when Danny asked if she'd be willing to go without him.

With the PPDC, Danny and Debbie get three squares and a warm, safe place to sleep. Or at least as safe as anyplace can be, now that otherworldly monsters rise from the deep and destroy whole cities.

 

\--

 

Danny meets Rusty Ryan his first day at the Academy.

Rusty's built on the rough dimensions of a bean pole, cheekbones sharp enough to cut glass and the hungry, wild-eyed look Danny's seen on the faces of too many people over the past couple of years. In all honesty, Danny isn't quite sure how Rusty is standing, let alone keeping perfect pace as they spar.

"Promising," Colonel Kim says, tone even, but her eyes alight with interest once she finally calls for them to stop. "Very promising."

Rusty grins, sudden and bright, lighting up his thin face like the sun breaking through clouds.

Danny feels like he's just been socked in the solar plexus. The feeling only fades a little with time.

 

\--

 

Danny meets Tess, after, when they get into a fight about her design for an update to Bay Killer's Conn-Pod. She's smart as hell and can go toe to toe with him in an argument. She's got this gorgeous fall of shiny auburn hair that she always wears pulled back in a utilitarian bun that he's tempted to muss when he passes her in the hall.

He thinks in another life he might've fallen head over heels for Tess. In this one, he's got Rusty and he's got Debbie and there's not a lot of room left in his crooked heart, but there's just enough space left over for Tess to be a friend. It never hurts to have a pet engineer on your side, anyway.

"That's not how that works," Rusty murmurs against the sensitive skin at the nape of Danny's neck, recently bared by the day's round of fresh buzz cuts. "You don't just run out of room for people."

Danny shrugs and settles further into the warm curve of Rusty's body. They fit together like they were made for this. For each other. "It is for me."

Rusty's quiet for long enough that Danny thinks he might have fallen asleep. "I just don't want you to be heartbroken if anything happens to me."

"If anything happens to you I'll be right there, too, so don't worry about it." Danny rolls over so he can meet Rusty's eyes in the dim light of their bunk. "And this way Tess will be around to take care of Debbie."

If Danny wakes up the next morning with bruises the precise size and shape of Rusty's fingers on his hips and love bites just visible over the collar of his uniform, nobody says anything.

Well, nobody but Debbie, but she's the only one allowed to give them shit, anyway.

 

\--

 

It's their fifteenth successful drop when Danny finally realizes: this is it. This is their life. He and Rusty are going to eat and train and sleep and fuck and fight together until one day they don't. One day they won't be smart or fast enough and a Kaiju will slip right in and have itself a real good day. And then they won't have to worry about anything anymore.

He only starts worrying when he thinks about what a relief that would be.

 

\--

 

"This is a really stupid plan," Debbie says, shrugging Tess and Lou's restraining hands from her shoulders. "It's stupid and you're probably going to die and then who cares if you closed the goddamn Breach?"

"I'll care." Danny somehow manages to say around the lump in his throat. "Because the world will still be around for you and that means you get to live. You'll get to live in a world where we don't spend all our time waiting for loud noises."

"Rusty, tell him it's a stupid plan," Debbie begs, and something cracks open in Danny's chest, but they have to, they have to, it's their last best shot.

"It is a stupid plan," Rusty agrees. And then the familiar warmth of his arm slipping around Danny's waist melts the tension climbing his spine. "But it's the best one we've got. So wish us luck, kid."

 

\--

 

The last thing Danny sees is the inside of Rusty's head, a place almost more familiar to him than his own. It's warm and sharp and gorgeous. He can feel the pulse of  _ I love you, I love you, I love you, we did it, I love you  _ in time with their twinned rapid heartbeats. Danny can feel them both smiling and then --

Nothing.

 

\--

 

"Goddammit, Danny."

Debbie stares at her brothers' names, shiny gold letters on a wall, and tips her head back to take a long pull of contraband vodka from Rusty's old flask. The Kaidanovsky's always had a soft spot for her.

"You always pretended you did all this for me, but you were born to be a big damn hero."

Lou sits on the bench next to her, dark circles under her eyes like bruises and her white-blonde hair a frizzy halo around her head. Debbie passes her the flask and Lou takes a long pull.

"He made me promise to take care of you, you know."

Debbie tears her eyes from the wall and Lou stares back at her, crooked smile tilting her full lips.

"Danny?"

Lou snorts. "Rusty. Danny mostly just threatened to make me disappear if I ever so much as hurt your delicate feelings."

"Yeah." Debbie slumps sideways, the fabric of Lou's coveralls familiarly coarse against her cheek. "That sounds like them."

"Yeah." Lou raises the flask. "To canceling the apocalypse."

"To Rusty and Danny."

"Same thing, love. Same thing."


End file.
